Hello again from Maybelle Farm.  It's Saturday January 29th, 2011 and its a beautiful sunny day for a change.  Can you believe it, not snow, sleet, freezing rain, or below zero temps?  I could tolerate winter more if the weather would stay like this.  It has been a very difficult week here at Maybelle Farm.  Since I last wrote on the blog, my beautiful Coopworth/Finn/Dorset/Shetland Marcus has been sick.  Sunday night he wouldn't eat and that is a sure sign that something is wrong.  I called the Vet Deb  and she came out on Monday morning.  Well it appears that as I get older......I get more stupid!!!!!!  I thought because of the terrible -21 below weather that all the sheep should have some grain and cracked corn to help keep them warm!!!!!  WRONG... especially for wethers!  It seems Marcus had crystals in his urine and that could possibly do him in!  I had to give him 1 1/2 tsp. of ammonium chloride in water everyday and hopefully he could pull through.  Finally on Wed. I could say I thought he was going to make it.  You can imagine, I cried had beat myself up quite a bit about possibly killing my bottle baby Marcus (who by the way is 200 lbs of bottle baby)!  He is also 12 yrs. old which is pretty old for a large breed of sheep.  O.K. 

Things are looking better until Thursday night when I notice Ripley, another of my wether's who is a pure Shetland and one of our first triplets born on the farm.   Ripley's eyes looked milky and he had his head cocked off to the side and was standing in the corner by himself, grinding his teeth and not eating.  I called Stephen (the other Vet)  and he said to give him LA200 and a whole aspirin.  Friday morning as I walked to the stall, Ripley is leaning up against the wall.  I say"Hey old Ripley"  and he slides down the wall onto his side and had a seizure!!!!!!  Darcy called Stephen and he said will be at the farm about noontime.  Elizabeth called at about 10:30 a.m. and said to give him 10 cc of dexamethazone.  Stephen arrived and I think he will probably put Ripley down.  The next things I know Stephen and Todd come to the house to see if I have any Thiamine liquid.  Stephen gave Ripley some Lasix I.V, Thiamine I.V and Thiamine I.M. and said it was either Listeriosis or polio/encephelitis from a thiamine deficiency!!!  Todd gave 1.5 cc I.m. Thiamine late afternoon and I gave 1.5 cc Thiamine I.M.  in the evening. 

Yesterday morning I gave thiamine 1.5 cc I.M. and Todd gave 1.5 cc I.M. late afternoon.  Last night I gave him 1.5 cc of Thiamine I.M. and LA200 4 cc I.M.  This morning he still had his head off to the side, grinding his teeth and I'm in tears because I don't know what else to give him.  I called and talked to Deb who said to give Banamine for pain, 1.5 cc of Thiamine three times today and to force feed the alfalfa powder/with rumen starter in warm water.  What a poor sheep.  He just stands with his head down and off to the side looking so pathetic and grinding his teeth.  I am really questioning if it was the right call to try to let him struggle through this???  It is making me ache all over!

Deb also said that they have seen a lot of thiamine defiency this winter and I'm wondering why?  This is my first experience with this and I need to know what I'm doing differently this year than any of the other years since 1999.  Maybe its time to hang up my shephardess apron and move on!!!!!

Jonathan has been so very sick with a cold, sore throat and cough since last Sunday.  He went back to work today and I know he shouldn't have.  All it will do is set him back another week plus it passes it on to everyone that rides the bus.  I went to my class at Marlboro College yesterday and coughed my way through the class.  It was about applying for grants and Andy Robinson was the instructor.  He really did a good job and there was a lot of group work which made it easier.  I certainly learned a lot about how to ask for money and will try to apply it to the museum work.

This coming Saturday Feb. 5th, 2011 we are having an "All for Love" celebration at the Tasha Tudor Museum and Jenna is helping me.  We are going to have cookies to decorate, valentines to create and cornucopia.  Marjorie Tudor will show her newest Valentine design and its going to just be a lovely time.  10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is located at the Jeremiah Beale House in West Brattleboro, VT.

Time to go do some work.  So-long from Maybelle MaMa

P.S.  I am posting a few pictures of some of my most recent needle felting projects.

Hello again from Maybelle Farm,

It's Sunday night Jan. 16th and boy is it cold out! The windchill is supposed to be about - 9 degrees below zero and everyone is shut in the barn tonight.  I was able to let Old Blake and Marcus out in the side pasture for a little while this morning and old Marcus was like a bulldozer making trails around the pasture.  I put Thistle (that is now minus the headgear) with his 4 girls and they all got to go out this afternoon.  Thistle I think was suffering from Snow Blindness for a little while but everyone was happy to run around.  I'm putting a picture of Thistle without the metal/wire headgear and he is definitely happier with that off.  It did move his horn out about an inch but with such cold weather, we decided it was better to take it off before it bothered his sinus.  You know me, if I don't have something to worry about, I can think up something.

I'm also adding a picture of a very happy Rowan.  Tonight she came to YaYa's for a sleepover and after supper I gave her a candycane tootsie-roll lollipop.  Well she hit her poor wobbly front tooth and it started to bleed....crying and needing to go home!  I took her up to the farmhouse and she sat in the bathroom with Mommy who she finally let pull her tooth!  2 minutes later a smiling Rowan showed me her tooth in a kleenex.  Whewwww that was such a relief!  She returned home with me  and now she is asleep in my bed with her little tooth in her toothfairy pouch.  Papa said the Tooth Fairy would probably pay more to get her tooth here at our house!!!!!  We will see how much better she does here than at home! HAHA!

Declan stayed with me this afternoon and had a nap while Rowan, Darcy and Todd went to Weston to a birthday party for one of Rowan's little friends.  Yesterday I worked in Stratton taking care of a little 96 yr. old and did a 6 hr. shift.  It snowed the whole time I was there and it was pretty slippery coming home.  David came up to feed my dog Lettie last night and he plowed out to the barn this morning.  Tomorrow I will have to bring down wood and fill our woodbox.  We have very cold weather here for awhile and sleet/freezing rain for Tuesday/Wed.  I am getting a new car and planned to get it this week but I'm going to put it off till next week.  I am not going out in bad weather to get a new car and slide off the road.

I have been working at the Tasha Tudor Museum helping Amy with lots of processing information from the Charter Membership Drive.  I love working at the Museum and at the Rookery.  Well I have to close for now and go to bed.  Darcy and Declan will come have breakfast with Rowan and I in the morning.  Jonathan has to work this Monday because of the Martin Luther King Day.  Mt. Snow has been very busy this week-end and everyone has tomorrow off.

Goodnight from Maybelle MaMa

Hello again from Maybelle MaMa.  It's Friday night January 7th, 2011 and it is snowing.  I moved my three wethers back out to a pasture with two large sheds so the barn is not so crowded.  Since I wrote the last time Luther my (Moorit) dark brown ram went to a beautiful farm to be used for breeding.  He is at Appleseed Farm in Southwick, MA.  I have had the most comical conversations with Jocelyn about the breeding rituals of the sheep!  We both have laughed ourselves silly and I have met another Shetland sheep breeder that loves her sheep as much as I do.  Between meeting Donna from Kindred Spirit Farm and now Jocelyn, it's like having two more sisters. Jocelyn wanted to sign a paper stating that she was not responsible if Luther kicked the bucket while breeding her sheep so i made out a form.  I also told her I thought for him to be with her ewes would be like me being in a chocolate factory!  Yipeeeee, what a way to go!   Luther......death by breeding......me death by chocolate! 

As you can tell, I'm beyond tired and everything is very entertaining.  About 6-7 weeks ago I went to the Dr. and had my foot x-rayed.  I had broken my big toe from a big green metal gate falling on it.  I'm in the process of loosing my toenail! OUCH!!  Today I went to the Dr. and I have a broken pinky on my Rt. hand.  It started about 2 weeks ago hurting and being swollen.   I showed my sister, my sister-in-law, and whined to my daughter.  My sister and sister-in-law both said "Oh its probably just arthritis".  Darcy just laughed and said "Oh you've got a crooked little finger just like Grandma"!!   No Sympathy.

New topic:  Tonight Todd and Darcy went to the barn to work on poor Thistle's horns.  The Vet checked him and said his right horn was growing directly towards  his jaw.  They put the headgear on him that Todd made, bae on a couple of earlier designs by my brothers Burdette and Everett.  OUCH!   I'm sure Thistle has a headache and wonders what happened to him.  He is in a stall with one of his girls, Aphrodite, and will have to stay there until we take off the headgear.  On Sunday Todd will give the turnbuckle one turn and then every other day until that right horn is out away from his jaw.  If you look at the picture of Thistle with the metal, wire and purple duct tape, I'm sure he is saying "I've got a headache and it's got Excedrin written all over it"!!!!!!

Well I guess its time to call it a night and go to bed. 

Goodnight from Maybelle MaMa